"paint by numbers thriller that doesn't add up, the timing of this film couldn't be better"

With every man and his dog out to get a piece of the bankers who have frittered away all our money, here comes a film where the principal villains are, you've guessed it, filthy rich bankers. The stage is perfectly set for a law abiding citizen to bring down the corrupt bastards making all the money and generally saving the day - that's sure to resonate with everyone right?! Shame then that this film is sure to resonate with absolutely no-one - if there was ever a case of a criminally missed opportunity this is it.

Ironically, just like our banks, this films lacks just about everything required to create a bonafide thriller - it's like the makers rocked up to the ‘thriller by numbers' store and left empty handed. The key element in any film like this, tension, is sorely lacking. There's no pace to the film, and the story jumps around Europe like a schizophrenic jack-in-the-box which does nothing for the continuity.What frustrated me even further was the fact that you realise, about two thirds of the way through the film, that the entire premise of the story rests upon the previous transgressions of Louis Salenger (Clive Owen) which in total get about two minutes screen time in a two hour long film - now I'm no maths guru but for me that simply doesn't add up.What you're left with is a film of contradictions.

It's a thriller that doesn't thrill. A film of suspense with no suspense. It just lacks the basic ingredients needed for a film like this to work. All the more pity then, as the worldwide economy had conspired all it could to coincide perfectly with the release of this film - such a shame that it doesn't deliver.